Regardless of its new 1080p restoration, Boris Karloff’s performance remains the best reason to see James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN.
One of the disturbing things about the prospect of a restored FRANKENSTEIN is that Universal has long been preserving a version that was cut in places prior to its release on the order of Universal studio head Carl Laemmle, Sr. and in other places after its earliest engagements. The film, as it was known and shown in most cities in 1931 until 1999, with certain lines of dialogue (“In the name of God, now I know how it feels to be God!”) and instances of graphic violence (the drowning of Maria, hypodermics being shoved into arms) removed, no longer exists in cir- culation—yet it was from this expurgated version that the film’s legend arose. While the restoration of Henry’s (Colin Clive) messianic outburst presents the creation scene with its climax and the protagonist’s breakdown, the graphic depiction of the Monster’s (Boris Karloff) confused murder of the child deprives the film of a hauntingly abrupt instance of subtlety that lingers in the mind far more effectively than the scene as it has stood for the last dozen years. It is also said that the film was originally shown with a greenish tint, which would be a welcome viewing option. At the very least, with DRACULA comple- mented with its Spanish version, there is no reason Universal could not have offered FRANKENSTEIN, for the first time on disc, in both its native editions. The disc’s supplements reprise the previous Fran- kenstein Legacy issue’s audio commentaries by film
historians Rudy Behlmer and Christopher Frayling, which cannot be faulted though neither gentleman’s published work on the subject challenges that of the commentator conspicuous in his absence: Gregory William Mank. Mank does contribute as a talking head, among other notables, to David J. Skal’s “The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Mon- ster” (45m). Constantine Nasr’s “Karloff: The Gentle Monster” (40m) profiles the British-born character actor who found lasting stardom after being cast as the Monster and initially billed as “?” “Boo!” (1932, 9m 30s) is creaky Universal comedy short incorpo- rating Dracula and the Monster, and there is also a posters/stills slideshow, a selection of Frankenstein series trailers (curiously missing 1939’s SON OF FRANKENSTEIN) and a promotional short about Universal’s 100th anniversary restorations undertak- ing. Last but not least, Kevin Brownlow’s outstand- ing, feature-length documentary UNIVERSAL HORROR, overused to the point of becoming an eyesore on all the various Legacy editions, is thank- fully found only on the FRANKENSTEIN disc in the ESSENTIAL COLLECTION box set.
Limitations of time and space prevent us from exploring the balance of this set for this issue, but this discussion of one of the most impor- tant genre releases of 2012 will continue in VIDEO WATCHDOG 172.
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